IOPList.Org

Kentucky’s Former Democrat Secretary of State
Allowed ‘Inactive Registrations’ to Remain on
Voter Rolls in Violation of
Federal Court Consent Decree






JANUARY 04, 2021
|
JUDICIAL WATCH




Judge Extends Consent Decree beyond Another Federal Election





(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky agreed with
Judicial Watch that Kentucky’s former Democrat Secretary of State
Alison Lundergan Grimes breached the terms of a National Voter
Registration Act (NVRA) Consent Judgment with Judicial Watch by
delaying sending out voter notices, which allowed the names of
people who have died or moved away to remain on the Commonwealth’s
voter rolls. As a result of the breach, District Court Judge Gregory F. Van
Tatenhove extended the judgement beyond its termination date
from October 31, 2023, to March 31, 2025, which allows it to encompass
one additional federal election. Kentucky is set to remove over
250,000 names from the voter rolls under the terms of the consent
judgement.

By breaching the court’s decree and delaying sending out voter notices
before a critical deadline, Kentucky allowed outdated registrations to
remain on the rolls through the 2022 midterm federal elections, two
years longer than Kentucky agreed to in the original judgment.

This latest court ruling comes in Judicial Watch’s 2017 lawsuit under
the NVRA (Judicial Watch, Inc. and the United States of America v.
Alison Lundergan Grimes, et al. (No. 3:17-cv-00094)). (The original
defendant has since been replaced by Michael Adams, the new
secretary of state elected in November 2019.) In June 2018, with
Judicial Watch’s agreement, the Justice Department moved to
intervene in the lawsuit against Kentucky.

The court agreed with Judicial Watch that “the initial Defendants
breached the Consent Judgment” by failing to send address
notices in time:

Since [the secretary of state’s office] failed to
follow up with the [lawfully required] notices … 
registrations belonging to those with a change
of address cannot be cancelled after the
November 2020 election. … Therefore, this
inaction delayed Kentucky’s progress toward
“ensuring an accurate and current voter
registration” list, one of the main purposes
of the NVRA and Consent Judgment.



For years prior to entering into the Consent Judgment, Kentucky had
been in violation of the NVRA’s requirement to keep its voter rolls up
to date, which forced Judicial Watch to file its lawsuit to bring the
Bluegrass State into compliance with the law. Judicial Watch’s lawsuit
against Kentucky alleged that 48 counties had more registered voters
than citizens over the age of 18. The suit noted that Kentucky was then
one of only three states in which the statewide active registration rate
was greater than 100% of the age-eligible citizen population.


In signing the Consent Judgment, Kentucky acknowledged:


[T]he practices currently in place in Kentucky
do not comply with the NVRA’s requirement
that states conduct a general voter registration
list maintenance program that makes a reasonable
effort to remove ineligible persons from the
voter rolls due to a change in residence outside
of the jurisdiction …


“Why would a leftist secretary of state purposefully act to allow ineligible
names to remain on Kentucky’s voting rolls in violation of a federal court’s
consent decree?” asked Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Dirty voting
rolls make it easier to steal elections, which is why Judicial Watch’s litigation
to clean up rolls across America is urgent.”


Judicial Watch is a national leader for cleaner elections.


In October 2020, Judicial Watch revealed a study showing 353 U.S. counties
had 1.8 million more registered voters than eligible voting-age citizens. In other
words, the registration rates of those counties exceeded 100% of eligible voters.
The study found eight states showing state-wide registration rates exceeding
100%:

Alaska,
Colorado,
Maine,
Maryland,
Michigan,
New Jersey,
Rhode Island, and
Vermont.


In October 2020, Judicial Watch sued Colorado to force the state to clean up its
voter rolls. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of itself and three residents of Colorado
against Jena Griswold, Colorado Secretary of State, and the State of Colorado
for failing to clean the state’s voter rolls as required by the NVRA.

In September 2020, Judicial Watch sued Illinois on behalf of the Illinois
Conservative Union and three of its members for refusing to disclose voter roll
data in violation of Federal law.

In April 2020, Judicial Watch sued North Carolina for failing to clean its voter rolls.

In April 2020, Judicial Watch sued Pennsylvania for failing to make reasonable
efforts to remove ineligible voters from their rolls as required by the NVRA.

Also in April 2020, a federal court ordered the State of Maryland to produce the
voter list for Montgomery County that includes the registered voters’ date of birth.

In 2019, California settled a NVRA lawsuit with Judicial Watch and began the
process of removing up to 1.6 million inactive names from Los Angeles County’s
voter rolls.

In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld a voter-roll cleanup program that resulted
from a Judicial Watch settlement of a federal lawsuit with Ohio.

Judicial Watch Attorney Robert Popper is the director of Judicial Watch’s clean
elections initiative.